University of Idaho
Serving Students, Enabling Entrepreneurship, Conquering Compliance
Idaho's eCommerce Grows, Thrives on TouchNet Platform
- Moscow, Idaho
- Enrollment: Approx. 12,000
- Public university
- Founded: 1889
- Featured TouchNet technology: Payment Gateway™, Marketplace™
Since 1889, the University of Idaho has been an institution that expects more from itself, more from its students, more from knowledge and more from life. Add eCommerce to that list, too.
With high expectations in mind, the university began in 1999 what has become a lasting partnership with TouchNet. Today, the same initial investment continues to pay big dividends.
Right Decision
Terry Quinn, Idaho's manager of institutional eCommerce, was instrumental in putting all the pieces in place. It started with the launch of online payment functionality through the school's ERP in 1999-2000. TouchNet Payment Gateway offered the best solution for a processing engine, Quinn said, and as eCommerce took off across campus, partnering with TouchNet would prove to be an even better decision.
Soon students were paying online for everything from applications, tuition and fees to campus card deposits, parking permits and campus events. Alumni gifts also began flowing in through the Web. Electronic payments, regardless of where they originated, all channeled through Payment Gateway and hit the ERP in real time.
In addition to much less traffic at the cashier windows, the business office enjoyed dramatically simplified accounting and reconciliation, saving countless staff hours and stress loads. Not to mention that students and parents saw that their university was setting the curve in self-service.
Major Benefits, Minimal Effort
Naturally, the University of Idaho expected more from its commerce platform and didn't stop there. Quinn and his team attended the 2000 COMTEC that fall, where TouchNet unveiled Marketplace 1.0.
"We talked about how nice it would be to have a solution like that, where our university customers could sell whatever they want, and do it without having to go out and contract willy-nilly with a bunch of different payment vendors," Quinn said.
Sure enough, Marketplace achieved Quinn's desired outcome. As eCommerce proliferated across campus, the number of merchant accounts, applications and associated fees has been kept to a minimum. Instead of having two dozen or more disparate systems to pay for and maintain, Idaho only needed one.
"Because we got in on the ground floor and made Marketplace available, campus departments and other groups saw how easy and cost-effective it was. All the hard work was done. All they had to do was adopt it," said Quinn.
And every time other campus merchants get on board, it means one less cash drawer, card-swipe device and daily trip to the cashier's office. All the transactions are automatically recorded in the general ledger, which takes away expensive manual processes.
TouchNet was even able to link Idaho's central payment application to Marketplace's uPay module, thereby consolidating $13.4 million of transactions into one secure stream. The aggregate credit card transactions going through Marketplace helped Idaho negotiate a better discount rate and save tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Compliance Comes Easy
The move to uPay coincided with the transfer of central server hosting to the TouchNet Certified DataCenter.
"Up until that point, we had multiple servers on our campus storing payment data," Quinn said.
"Getting our central payment app, our ERP and uPay to talk to each other was huge. By moving the 'pay now' portion over to uPay, we took every network and associated machine out of PCI's scope. Otherwise, with 400 to 500 users, we were looking at some pretty serious and expensive compliance work."
Instead, Quinn can handle much of the PCI compliance work himself, without involving multiple departments.
Enterprising Education
With compliance issues addressed, without the need for a lot of time or money, Idaho is free to focus on meeting the needs of 21st century constituents, namely its students and university customers.
"Our students today have never known a world without the Web. Instant gratification is the norm. They want things right away, and expect to get them. We have to serve those needs instantly and capture the revenue at the same moment," Quinn said. "We're also finding new ways to generate revenue as departments around campus engage in entrepreneurial activities they likely otherwise would not undertake."
Quinn points to the increasing utilization of the Marketplace uStore module, which enables his campus customers to set up permanent or temporary eCommerce initiatives, everything from student care packages available from the dean of students to the law school selling raffle tickets for a fund-raiser. In its first full year using uStores, the university generated more than $235,000.
"New opportunities come up all the time," Quinn said. "All we have to do to set up a new merchant is tell them where to log in, show them how to handle the transactions, and that's the beginning and end of their involvement. They don't have to mess with the accounting because of the ERP interface, and they don't have to sign on to some third-party eCommerce app. Their only cost is credit card fees, but since their transactions are lumped in with the rest of our volume, they're keeping more of the money they make."
For Quinn, an Idaho alumnus, the proliferation of student self-service options and eCommerce opportunities is just what he and others envisioned years ago when the university first teamed up with TouchNet.
"We've always looked for ways to leverage our investment, and it's safe to say we've done that, probably in ways we never imagined at first," he said. "We've been able to create revenue streams and capture existing revenue in a different way. Best of all, with TouchNet, we get the money right now."
Being the University of Idaho, of course they expect even more.
University of Idaho
Serving Students, Enabling Entrepreneurship, Conquering Compliance
Idaho's eCommerce Grows, Thrives on TouchNet Platform
- Moscow, Idaho
- Enrollment: Approx. 12,000
- Public university
- Founded: 1889
- Featured TouchNet technology: Payment Gateway™, Marketplace™
Since 1889, the University of Idaho has been an institution that expects more from itself, more from its students, more from knowledge and more from life. Add eCommerce to that list, too.
With high expectations in mind, the university began in 1999 what has become a lasting partnership with TouchNet. Today, the same initial investment continues to pay big dividends.
Right Decision
Terry Quinn, Idaho's manager of institutional eCommerce, was instrumental in putting all the pieces in place. It started with the launch of online payment functionality through the school's ERP in 1999-2000. TouchNet Payment Gateway offered the best solution for a processing engine, Quinn said, and as eCommerce took off across campus, partnering with TouchNet would prove to be an even better decision.
Soon students were paying online for everything from applications, tuition and fees to campus card deposits, parking permits and campus events. Alumni gifts also began flowing in through the Web. Electronic payments, regardless of where they originated, all channeled through Payment Gateway and hit the ERP in real time.
In addition to much less traffic at the cashier windows, the business office enjoyed dramatically simplified accounting and reconciliation, saving countless staff hours and stress loads. Not to mention that students and parents saw that their university was setting the curve in self-service.
Major Benefits, Minimal Effort
Naturally, the University of Idaho expected more from its commerce platform and didn't stop there. Quinn and his team attended the 2000 COMTEC that fall, where TouchNet unveiled Marketplace 1.0.
"We talked about how nice it would be to have a solution like that, where our university customers could sell whatever they want, and do it without having to go out and contract willy-nilly with a bunch of different payment vendors," Quinn said.
Sure enough, Marketplace achieved Quinn's desired outcome. As eCommerce proliferated across campus, the number of merchant accounts, applications and associated fees has been kept to a minimum. Instead of having two dozen or more disparate systems to pay for and maintain, Idaho only needed one.
"Because we got in on the ground floor and made Marketplace available, campus departments and other groups saw how easy and cost-effective it was. All the hard work was done. All they had to do was adopt it," said Quinn.
And every time other campus merchants get on board, it means one less cash drawer, card-swipe device and daily trip to the cashier's office. All the transactions are automatically recorded in the general ledger, which takes away expensive manual processes.
TouchNet was even able to link Idaho's central payment application to Marketplace's uPay module, thereby consolidating $13.4 million of transactions into one secure stream. The aggregate credit card transactions going through Marketplace helped Idaho negotiate a better discount rate and save tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Compliance Comes Easy
The move to uPay coincided with the transfer of central server hosting to the TouchNet Certified DataCenter.
"Up until that point, we had multiple servers on our campus storing payment data," Quinn said.
"Getting our central payment app, our ERP and uPay to talk to each other was huge. By moving the 'pay now' portion over to uPay, we took every network and associated machine out of PCI's scope. Otherwise, with 400 to 500 users, we were looking at some pretty serious and expensive compliance work."
Instead, Quinn can handle much of the PCI compliance work himself, without involving multiple departments.
Enterprising Education
With compliance issues addressed, without the need for a lot of time or money, Idaho is free to focus on meeting the needs of 21st century constituents, namely its students and university customers.
"Our students today have never known a world without the Web. Instant gratification is the norm. They want things right away, and expect to get them. We have to serve those needs instantly and capture the revenue at the same moment," Quinn said. "We're also finding new ways to generate revenue as departments around campus engage in entrepreneurial activities they likely otherwise would not undertake."
Quinn points to the increasing utilization of the Marketplace uStore module, which enables his campus customers to set up permanent or temporary eCommerce initiatives, everything from student care packages available from the dean of students to the law school selling raffle tickets for a fund-raiser. In its first full year using uStores, the university generated more than $235,000.
"New opportunities come up all the time," Quinn said. "All we have to do to set up a new merchant is tell them where to log in, show them how to handle the transactions, and that's the beginning and end of their involvement. They don't have to mess with the accounting because of the ERP interface, and they don't have to sign on to some third-party eCommerce app. Their only cost is credit card fees, but since their transactions are lumped in with the rest of our volume, they're keeping more of the money they make."
For Quinn, an Idaho alumnus, the proliferation of student self-service options and eCommerce opportunities is just what he and others envisioned years ago when the university first teamed up with TouchNet.
"We've always looked for ways to leverage our investment, and it's safe to say we've done that, probably in ways we never imagined at first," he said. "We've been able to create revenue streams and capture existing revenue in a different way. Best of all, with TouchNet, we get the money right now."
Being the University of Idaho, of course they expect even more.